Almost 250 newly qualified nurses and midwives have joined NHS Tayside, taking up roles across Tayside in the biggest ever intake of new recruits.
Claire Pearce, Director of Nursing and Midwifery, welcomed some of the new nurses and midwives at an induction event held in Ninewells Hospital.
Claire said, “I am delighted to welcome our newly qualified nurses and midwives as they join our clinical teams. We are lucky enough to have recruited 248 nurses and midwives this year and I want to thank them for choosing Tayside as the place they want to work. Their skills will provide invaluable support as we move into the busy winter period and beyond.
“These new practitioners have started their careers during an unprecedented and challenging time. We know our new recruits have already gained invaluable experience as more than 100 of them volunteered to start work in Band 4 posts or health care support workers whilst they were waiting for their nursing registration to be issued and I would like to thank them for their dedication.
“Nursing is a true vocation and is a job that has a real impact on people’s lives. It is an absolute privilege to be a nurse or midwife and be there from the start of life to the end of life and all stages in between. I have no doubt that our new staff will get great satisfaction from their new careers in their chosen specialties.”
The new practitioners are taking up roles in a range of healthcare services and in locations across Tayside including district nursing, mental health and learning disabilities, surgery, women and children’s services, critical care, theatres and in community roles working with the health and social care partnerships.
Nurse graduate Claire McKenzie who is now working in Ward 1 in Ninewells Hospital as a staff nurse said, “I started in NHS Tayside in ward 1 as a healthcare assistant back in 2016 where I learnt the basics of nursing care. With the support of the senior charge nurse and my colleagues, I joined the NHS endorsed route into nursing.
“To now be a registered nurse back in the same ward I started as a healthcare assistant is a huge achievement and I’m incredibly proud to be a staff nurse in NHS Tayside.”
Midwife graduate Rebecca Dike added, “I trained in South West England and before I came to Tayside I was nervous about how things might be done differently here, but the people and the support I’ve received have been so wonderful.”